


i will hold on hope (and i wont let you choke)

by lokium



Category: Les Trois Mousquetaires | The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas, The Musketeers (2014)
Genre: AU, Autistic Character(s), Coffeeshop AU, Trans Character(s), lgbtq character(s), use of the word queer (not as slur but still usage)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-12
Updated: 2014-07-06
Packaged: 2018-01-24 12:35:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1605410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lokium/pseuds/lokium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a coffeeshop au because i am weak and i dont care about exams<br/>all titles coming from mumford and sons because i am weak and basically all their songs remind me of the three musketeers</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. the sun it rises slowly as you walk

It works like this:

  *      Athos owns the shop itself, but Aramis and Porthos are the ones who live above it.
  *      Athos lives in a block of flats a couple of hundred yards away from the shop.
  *      Constance (that’s _Ms_ Bonacieux to you, young man) is his landlady.
  *      (There’s probably more to it than that, but neither Aramis nor Porthos want to end up dead in a ditch for incurring Constance’s wrath, so neither pry.)
  *      The three take it in turns to open _Les Trois Mousquetaires_ each morning, and since Sundays are late opening, it works out evenly.
  *      Athos doesn’t do anything that requires him to make eye contact with the public, Aramis is a natural behind the counter (something to do with charisma, according to Constance), and Porthos makes latte art to die for.
  *      Jean-Armand du Peyrer, more informally and infinitely more commonly known as Treville, and who is sometimes referred to as ‘Captain’ (Aramis started it, Porthos picked it up, Athos figured it’d take less effort to play along, and Constance thought, and still does think, that her life is essentially trying to herd cats), is, to all intents and purposes, their supplier. He probably earns more than all of them put together, but that’s neither here nor there. (Constance suspects he has royal ties. Athos wants nothing to do with it.)



And these are all reasons why d’Artagnan's arrival could throw into the works not so much a spanner but a five-foot wrench.


	2. placed all my trust at the foot of this hill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> d'artagnan comes by les trois. he hadnt bargained on being sized up by possibly the most terrifying person he's met so far in his life.

It shouldn’t be surprising at this point, but somehow it’s Constance’s fault that Charles d’Artagnan shows up at the shop on a foggy autumn morning, holding the “help wanted” sign aloft in one hand and giving what looks to be his best puppy-dog eyes. Really, he’s lucky Athos isn’t the one out front right now, because in all honestly, Athos would probably have just stared him down until the boy left. Aramis tells him as much, keeping his tone conversational and light, and pulls out his phone to text Porthos and tell him to come downstairs to hold shop.

“So who exactly are you?” Aramis asks, wiping down the machine and the counter (because as it happens, Porthos is incredibly finicky about his workspace, really, who would’ve guessed).

When Aramis looks up, the boy seems put out. “So Constance didn’t say anything,” he says, almost to himself. “I’m Charles d’Artagnan, please don’t call me Charles, I live with Constance,” the words come out in a single breath, then he seems to catch himself. “Well, uh, she’s my landlady, we don’t _live together_ , but we're friends, I guess, and she told me since I’m looking for a job I should come here and I’m just going to be quiet now.”

Aramis gets the impression he shouldn’t be in tears of laughter right now, but honestly, the boy is so flustered, it’s almost cute. _Charles,_ he corrects himself a moment later, then corrects himself again with a hesitant _…d’Artagnan?_

“Okay, so you want to work here, right?” not waiting for a response, he carries on, “have you ever worked in a place like this?” a shake of the head. “Do you even know how to make coffee?” a tentative nod. Aramis sighs in relief. This, at least, passes his basic requirements – if they’re going to have to tell the kid to shove off, Athos will have to do it. (Aramis isn’t sure he has the heart.)

“I’m assuming this is why you wanted me down here,” Porthos’ voice interrupts the pause which had been becoming a little bit stretched. “Who’s this?”

“D’Artagnan, apparently,” Aramis takes the opportunity to duck out from behind the counter and throw his apron over Porthos’ head. It lands ungracefully, covering his eyes, and Aramis is still snickering by the time he’s led d’Artagnan (he’s going with last name, that seems good, it works for him and Athos) to the back room where he’s roughly 80% certain Athos is sulking for one reason or another.

“Oi, hope you’re somewhat sober,” Aramis calls, and a muffled protest is confirmation enough that their resident drunkard is present. “C’mon, we have a fresh-faced new recruit who needs to be subjected to your harsh scrutiny.” He contemplates saying aside to the boy, ‘that’s an exaggeration, don’t worry,’ but that’s a bit too close to lying for his comfort. He sneaks a glance at d’Artagnan and finds him looking a mixture of curious, apprehensive and terrified. To be fair, that does seem to be the common first reaction to Athos, especially when Athos is hungover. (Aramis is also roughly 80% certain Athos is hungover.)

At last, there’s movement from The Sofa (the capitalisation is wholly deserved) and Athos emerges, dark circles ever-present, hair sticking up in every which direction, and face set in a glare which could have killed a lesser man. After a moment spent sizing up the newcomer, he facially shrugs and wanders off. Aramis glances at d’Artagnan again, and confirms that the boy is still feeling just as confused, apprehensive and terrified, at least if his expression is anything to go by.

“That’s Athos?” he asks quietly.

“That is indeed Athos.” Aramis replies, just as in the kitchen, a tap starts running.

“I thought he’d be more…” d’Artagnan trails off, unable to find an appropriate word.

“Yeah, most people tend to,” Aramis returns, not bothering to suggest words. There are a lot he can think of; sober, tall, angry, organised. It may well be that none are what d’Artagnan is thinking along the lines of.

A few moments later, Athos reappears, looking a little more put-together – at least, his hair is more or less tamed, and his skin isn’t quite so pale. “Why exactly are you here?”

The question isn’t specifically addressed to d’Artagnan so Aramis pipes up with, “he wants the job we’ve been offering.”

Athos blinks slowly, eyes flicking up to meet d’Artagnan’s briefly, before settling at somewhere around the boy’s collarbones. “Why should we give you the job?”

D’Artagnan looks, for a moment, as if he’s struggling to decide whether or not to give the typical “hire me” spiel, complete with the claims of being a perfectionist, and somewhere along the line seems to realise there’s no point bullshitting Athos. (He gets to it quicker than Aramis had done towards the beginning of his acquaintanceship with Athos, he’ll give the kid that much.) “To be honest, I’m probably not exactly what you want. I’ve never worked in a coffee shop before, I don’t have much experience in employment in general, and the main reason I’m here is because my landlady told me I should give it a shot. But I can promise I’ll try my best, I’ll be on time, and I don’t even mind that much if the pay isn’t very good. And I’m kinda a fast learner, if that helps.”

This, apparently, is enough for Athos to drag his gaze back up to d’Artagnan’s face. He narrows his eyes slightly, and as Aramis looks between the two, it’s obvious the boy is unnerved but determined to hold his own. Eventually, after what feels like hours but is really only a few seconds, Athos looks towards Aramis, and nods.

“Congrats,” Aramis murmurs, as Athos leaves again, this time to a set of stairs in the corner. “You have the boss’ approval. Now, time for you to meet Porthos properly!”


	3. where you invest your love, you invest your life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> one aspect of how les trois came to be. (in other words, the story of the consequences of one of athos' many decisions (whether it's bad or not is up to fate to decide))

  *          Athos owns the shop itself, but Aramis and Porthos are the ones who live above it.



 

Because the three have equal shifts, hours, pay and time for breaks, it’s easy to assume the balance of power is also equal. However, it’s an incorrect assumption – Athos technically owns the shop they all work in and love (and on some days, hate). It’s a bit of a long story, involving what is politely described as “an absolutely awful breakup”, drunkenness, bad decisions and an attempt at healing, but regardless of the path, it ended up that Athos had literally bought a shop and came to somewhat of a block. It could be said that, well, he actually hadn’t thought quite that far ahead.

At the time, this led to a phone conversation at a bit past two o’clock in the morning. “I may have bought a shop,” Athos had said (slurred?) as soon as the call was picked up.

A pause. “You may have bought a shop,” Aramis had repeated, words rough with sleep and confusion.

“That is what I just said,” Athos had replied, before common sense kicked in and he backtracked. “What I meant was, I… I had plans to make it into a, I don’t know, a coffee shop or something, and now I’m really not sure, except I’ve already bought it and paid for it, all up-front, and I knew if I called Porthos at whatever time it is, he’d find me and murder me slowly, so I called you.”

Another pause had ensued, this time for Aramis to parse the veritable diatribe Athos had imparted. “You wanted to open a coffee shop. _You_ wanted to open a coffee shop.” Yet another pause. “I’m, like, seventy percent certain I’m still asleep.”

Athos had laughed then, a short, sharp sound. “Just… tell me I’ve made a huge mistake, you’ve been thinking it from the start.”

“Gotta admit, doesn’t seem like the smartest of ideas.” Aramis’ sigh then had sounded as a rush of static. “Look, Athos, it’ll still be there in the morning. The _real_ morning. Get some sleep instead of worrying about it.”

None of this conversation had really helped the fact that Athos had bought a whole shop.

What Athos had failed to mention at the time was that he had also bought the living space above the shop. It hadn’t seemed relevant at the time, but then again, he hadn’t realised that it was designed for two people, which presented a whole new problem on top of the fact that he already had a place to live – specifically, it wasn’t as if he could invite either Aramis or Porthos to live with him, at all but also especially in favour of the other.

Hence how Aramis and Porthos ended up essentially living together. (This isn’t weird. If anything, it’s somewhat of a surprise that it hadn’t happened earlier. Not that there’s anything romantic going on, of course, though saying that straight-faced to Constance will receive a raised eyebrow and a slight smirk.)

However, despite having solved the problem of the living space, there had still been the issue of the actual shop. There had subsequently been a small debate about whether or not it should be a coffee shop, but this didn’t last long given once an idea gets into Athos’ head, it stays put more often than not. There had also been a brief look shared between Porthos and Aramis, one that had said something along the lines of _Athos hates social interaction with strangers more than anyone I’ve ever come across and barely makes eye contact, why did he think of opening a coffee shop_ with several question marks flying around that thought, but Athos had already made clear that he wasn’t entirely sure why he did it in the first place (again, something to do with rebuilding his life, but really, he could’ve excused buying a _zoo_ with that logic). But given there was pretty much definitely going to be a coffee shop that existed that belonged to Athos so by extension would be managed partially by the other two (and possibly Constance), they had needed to figure out how to actually run the show. It had been realised fairly early on that Athos would not be the one to make nice with customers, both because of Athos’ aversion to it but also Aramis’ talent at it. (Not to say Porthos isn’t charming, but Aramis can manage to persuade people to buy more than they plan to, which is more ideal in a business.) Actually, after having talked through various roles and necessities, the main obstacle had been licensing. After all, to sell food in the UK one needs a license (or so Porthos had said, and really, he’s the one with most knowledge about the law), which Athos had not really considered. This, incidentally, is how they end up with Treville, which is a whole other story as well.

 Athos has often wondered, somewhat inanely, whether, if their situation hadn’t been how it was, the shop would have worked anyway, or if it would have failed miserably. Had Porthos and Aramis not both been dissatisfied with their living arrangements, would they have taken up Athos’ offer of the place he’d just bought? If Aramis hadn’t had such a charismatic character, would they have had a suitable “front man”? Had Treville not entered their lives, would they have even got the shop off the ground? (Well, the answers to those are maybe, yes (Porthos) and probably not, respectively, but it’s a similar premise as to the age-old Reformation debate – had Martin Luther been killed in 1521, would the Reformation have happened? Yes, but not in the same way. Not that a coffee shop is comparable to the earth-shaking renewal of 16th century religion, of course.)

The sequence of events had been unlikely enough that all three of the eponymous _Les Trois Mousquetaires_ (also another story altogether) regularly speculate on how different life would have been had things been even slightly different to how they actually were. This is, essentially, just one of many reasons why they’re all surprised when d’Artagnan appears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh i might clean this up at some point, right now my writing can be described as "oh god way too many brackets oh god theyre taking over" and i gotta admit im kinda tired so yh apologies


End file.
